Hide Your Store Christmas Decorations Till After Turkey Day

Maybe you can listen to Jingle Bells on repeat for hours and be happy about it. Maybe Christmas music in July sounds like it’d be a terrific idea to you.

But, from the sounds of it, you might be in the minority.

A new survey from SOASTA surveyed 2,346 American adults, and a pretty definitive 78 percent said they didn’t want to hear Frosty the Snowman and his ilk until after Thanksgiving, while 75 percent thought that the decorations should stay tucked away until after Turkey Day. Pretty significant numbers, considering decorations are going up before Halloween these days. If they start coming out any earlier, Christmas decorations will actually make it into September and start getting into summer. That seems ludicrous, but also seems like it’s where the trend is pointing.

The survey also indicated that shoppers might just not care all that much about physical store preparations. Most Americans own a computer and a mobile device, but it’s still a slight surprise that an overwhelming 75 percent said that stores should focus on preparing not for Black Friday, but for Cyber Monday, by readying websites for the intense amount of shopping traffic they will no doubt receive on that Monday and throughout the holiday season.

It’s fascinating that there’s such a huge discrepancy here between consumer preference and store actions. Still, stores wouldn’t start putting up Christmas decorations so early if it wasn’t working, so if you’re not a fan of Christmas come way too early, you’ll have to adhere to the old adage – vote with your wallets.